178 Chapter 10 Subordination and content clauses[8] I know where he is.
11 I told her what it was."I know the answer to the question 'W here is he?'"
"I told her the answer to the question 'What was it?'"4.1 Closed interrogatives and the subordinators whether and if
Whereas main clause closed interrogatives are marked by subject
auxiliary inversion, their subordinate counterparts are normally introduced by one
of the interrogative subordinators whether and if,2 followed by basic subject
predicate order:
[9] MAIN
a. Did he accept the offer?
ii a. Will you chair the meeting?SUBORDINATE
b. I'm unsure whether he accepted the offer.
b. He asked me if/'d chair the meeting.Note that the inversion in [ia] requires the insertion of the dummy auxiliary do, but
since there is no inversion in the subordinate version [ib], no do appears here.
4.2 Open interrogatives
Open interrogatives, whether main or subordinate, are marked by the
presence of an interrogative phrase containing one of the interrogative words
who, what, which, etc. In main clauses the interrogative phrase usually occupies ini
tial position, and, if it is not subject, its placement in this position triggers
subject-auxiliary inversion. In subordinate clauses, on the other hand, the interrog
ative phrase is initial and there is normally no inversion:
[10] MAIN
a. Which candidate spoke first?
ii a. Why did she resign?
SUBORDINATE
b. I can 't say which candidate spoke first.
b. It 's obvious why she resigned.4.3 Interrogatives as complement
Like declaratives, interrogative content clauses usually function as
complements, as illustrated in [11]:
[11 ] SUBJECT What caused the delay remains unclear.
ii EXTRA POSED SUBJECT It remains unclear what caused the delay.
iii { I've di,eo", .. d whae they keep the key.
iv INTERNAL COMP OF VERB I asked them what progress they had made.
v The only issue is whether he was lying.
vi COMPOF NOUN The question whether it's legal was ignored.
vii COMP OF ADJECTIVE I'm uncertain what we can do about it.
viii COMP OF PREPOSITION That depends on how much time we have.
2 Recall that the interrogative subordinator if is to be distinguished from the preposition if that
expresses conditional meaning: see Ch. 7. §2.1.